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A Visit from the Presidents of Siam University and CMKL University

On March 18, the presidents of Siam University and CMKL University, along with the Deputy Secretary-General of the Office of the Higher Education Commission of the Ministry of Education in Thailand, paid a courtesy visit to Tohoku University.

In a meeting with Executive Vice President Toshiya Ueki and Executive Vice President Hirotsugu Takizawa, they discussed the current state of higher education in Japan and Thailand.

The Graduate School of Arts and Letters signed an academic exchange agreement with Siam University in 2016, which has since led to successful student exchanges and internships.

King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), which also maintains an academic exchange agreement with Tohoku University, established CMKL University in 2017 in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). In addition to internships, CMKL University also offers student exchange opportunities that include double degree programmes for master's degrees and doctorates.

Also discussed at the meeting were Thailand 4.0 - an economic development policy currently being promoted by the Thai government - and ways to improve internationalisation in education. Siam University President Pornchai Mongkhonvanit said that a high level of education is especially essential for the future development of the ASEAN region, and EVP Ueki said that Tohoku University would like to continue to cooperate in this respect.

Prior to the meeting, the group visited the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) and received an introduction to the latest research being carried out in the field of disaster science from Associate Professor Anawat Suppasri, who is from Bangkok.